The Executive Board of SGL Carbon SE has been informed that Volkswagen AG has purchased an 8.18% stake in the equity of SGL Carbon SE on February 25, 2011.
This corresponds to a total of 5,362,341 shares. Within the framework of this transaction, Volkswagen AG has acquired the 4.43% block of shares previously held by Süd-Kapitalbeteiligungs-Gesellschaft, a subsidiary of Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW).
Robert Koehler, CEO of SGL Group comments: “SGL Group perceives the financial participation of Volkswagen as an appreciation of our long term start-up and development activities in new materials and technologies particularly in automotive lightweight construction. These include, among others, carbon fiber based structural parts, the well known carbon ceramic brake discs as well as components for lithium ion batteries, which will play an important role in electric mobility.“
“This participation supports SGL Group’s long term intention to strengthen our in-dependence by establishing a small group of anchor investors. These encompass the already reported shareholdings of SKion and Voith. The acquisition of the shares previously owned by LBBW represents a further building block of this intention. Against this background, we welcome the new anchor investor“, says Koehler.
Reported shareholdings according to §§ 21 ff. Wertpapierhandelsgesetz (WpHG): In addition to the Volkswagen stake in SGL Carbon SE, SKion, the investment company of Mrs. Susanne Klatten, and Voith have lastly reported equity holdings of 22.25% and 5.12%, respectively.